Casey Luber Seiden MS, RD

Tag: plant based

Here it is ladies and gents, another Meatless Monday recipe for the win! While I enjoy all varieties of beans tossed into salads and scooped into grain bowls I sometimes need to put a twist on them to keep things interesting.- enter chickpea burgers. These patties are inspired and slightly tweaked from the Middle Eastern Chickpea Burgers found in the book The Cancer-Fighting Kitchen, a cookbook I’d highly recommend for any RD working in oncology and for anyone with or caring for someone with cancer.

Last week I did not enjoy my lunch. In an effort to conserve, cook with what I had on hand, and trust in my kitchen creativity, I created a butternut squash and carrot soup, spiced with miso, ginger paste, and black pepper, for a slightly Asian flair. Now, my stovetop tastes all led me to believe I had created a warming, seasonal soup that would pack up well for two days worth of work lunches. Yet, for some reason, as I got over halfway through my soup I stopped loving my lunch. Something was missing- or was it that there was too much of something else? The flavor simply did not carry over to the next day.

Lately I’ve been challening myself to eat a mostly plant-based diet after reading the fascinating work of Dr. T. Colin Campbell in The China Study. While I am by no means a vegan and could absolutely NOT live without eggs, cheese, or yogurt, I do get bored of the same ol’ chicken breast, turkey burgers, and seafood dinners, so I am challenging myself- or rather, enjoying experimenting- with adding more beans and legumes in my meals.

These Butternut Squash Black Bean Enchiladas were a quick and easy product of my forray into a plant-based diet, and lucky for me, the whole batch was all mine to enjoy (who else is living with a no bean eater?).